Here is your definitive guide to Salesforce+ – everything we know so far about this exciting new streaming service, which offers a “curated journey” for users in “every role, industry and line of business”.
Announced in August 2021, Salesforce+ will be making its official debut during Dreamforce ‘21. Virtual attendees will have access to “luminary speakers, Trailblazer success stories, and groundbreaking innovations” as they test out this latest development from the global leader in CRM.
What Kind of Content Does Salesforce+ Offer?
Inspired by the likes of Disney+, Netflix, and Peloton, Salesforce+ provides a tailored combination of live, pre-recorded, and on-demand event experiences and original programming – think Trailhead content with Netflix vibes.
Packed with features, here is the original Salesforce+ lineup, courtesy of Salesforce Studios:
- “Leading Through Change” launched in March 2020 as a weekly program focusing on how business leaders were dealing with the global pandemic. With more than 60 episodes, the series has had more than 700 million views and won the 2021 Content Marketing Award for Best Content Marketing Program.
- “Connections” showcases some of the most innovative marketers from companies like IBM, Levi’s, and GoFundMe. The COVID-19 pandemic has flipped marketing on its head and made long-standing playbooks and tactics obsolete. Salesforce President and CMO Sarah Franklin talks with some of the best and brightest marketing minds about how they are connecting with their audiences in a whole new way.
- “The Inflection Point” features CEOs from leading brands such as Coca-Cola, PayPal, Honeywell, and Workday sharing how their personal backstories, professional influences and values inform their leadership. Hosted by Monica Langley, who spent 27 years as a reporter at The Wall Street Journal, the series reveals a different side of some of the world’s top executives.
- “Boss Talks” is a career advice series hosted by Salesforce’s Chief Philanthropy Officer Ebony Beckwith and designed to inspire professional growth. In conversations with the likes of NFL player Kelvin Beachum Jr. and Mona Monica Kattan of Huda Beauty, Beckwith dives into topics such as dealing with imposter syndrome and unlocking workplace authenticity.
- “Simply Put” is a short-form video series hosted by Emmanuel Acho that makes complex business problems easy to understand, focusing on topics like how to build an ecommerce business and how to grow digital sales.
How is Salesforce+ Content Accessed?
With 60,000 projected Salesforce+ viewers across the globe, Dreamforce ‘21 provides the ideal opportunity to test the new platform’s capabilities with a large digital audience.
Dreamforce ‘21 offers four broadcast channels for users:
- Prime Time: The best of Dreamforce includes the latest news and announcements from Salesforce and the most inspiring stories of customer success and transformation from Marc Benioff, Salesforce executives, global leaders, and changemakers.
- Trailblazer: Viewers can learn from fellow Trailblazers – pioneers, innovators, and life-long learners – and discover how to use Salesforce to build a successful career, company, and community. The latest Customer 360 product innovations come to life here as well, with sneak peeks at the Salesforce product roadmap.
- Customer 360 Channel: Success stories direct from the Trailblazers who have lived them, and behind-the-scenes content highlighting innovations from the Salesforce experts who created them.
- Industries: Stories of how industry innovators are driving growth and reimagining their industries in an all-digital, work anywhere world.
Don’t forget to sign up for Dreamforce ‘21 events so you can discover the new Salesforce+ platform for yourself.
Why Salesforce+ and Why Now?
Many users may be wondering why now – indeed – why at all Salesforce has decided to venture down the well trodden path of streaming. After all, aren’t these platforms for recreational use?
An interesting Q&A with Colin Fleming, Salesforce’s Senior Vice President of Global Brand Marketing, addresses this very question.
“We looked at the media landscape, where people are consuming content, and decided the days of white papers in a business-to-business setting were no longer interesting to people. We’re staring at a cookie-less future. And looking at the consumer world, we reflected on that for Salesforce and asked, “Why shouldn’t we be thinking about this too?” The people watching Disney+, the people watching ESPN+, are the same people watching Salesforce content in a business setting, so why wouldn’t we follow that sort of direction? That’s really the genesis of this idea.”
Crucially, Salesforce’s strategy pays attention to media trends and the changes in consumer behavior – behavior that has been accelerated during the pandemic. With services like Netflix and Disney+ showing no signs of slowing down (quite the opposite), there is certainly logic in moving into this space, with the goal of making business content even more accessible and familiar.
Salesforce President and Chief Marketing Officer, Sarah Franklin, acknowledges the digital demands of the past 18 months as a driving force behind the development of the new platform:
“Over the last 18 months, we’ve had to reimagine how to succeed in the new digital-first world. We reimagined our events, shifting them to all-digital brand experiences and introduced new, relevant, original content. We’re not going back, we’re creating the future now. Just as brands like Disney, Netflix and Peloton have done with streaming services for consumers, Salesforce+ is providing an always-on, business media platform that builds trusted relationships with customers and a sense of belonging for the business community.”
Watch this Space
As a result, Salesforce has invested heavily in this new digital platform, with a growing team of writers, editors, and producers on board to deliver its ambitious programme of original (and fully customizable) content.
With so many developments in the pipeline, this is just the start for Salesforce+. Embracing the trailblazer spirit, Colin Fleming talks about the future of authentic, impactful stories created for, with and by the community.
“It’s about co-creation with our community. Originally there’s going to be a lot of Salesforce-produced content, but our vision is to have our audiences and community develop content on their own and use this as a co-creation environment. It’s not just our stories but what people can tell us themselves. This is a platform for that.”
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